


Black Hole

by Fox_155



Series: Heaven (NCT Hybrid AU) [5]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Chronic Illness, Discrimination, Euthanasia, Family, Fluff, Hybrids, Light Angst, Mentioned NCT Ensemble, Mentions of Murder, Platonic Bed-sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 05:36:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20633954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fox_155/pseuds/Fox_155
Summary: Taeil suddenly found it hard to remember his professional distance. It was likely due to the passport and agreement in his hand, maybe it had already started when he had read the Hybrid’s name. Taeil wasn’t sure how much he’d be able to comprehend. With the big eyes on him, Taeil suddenly struggled to tell himself he was just some silly little Hybrid. They were a bit too knowing and smart for him to be comfortable with that reasoning.“Hey. I’m Taeil, you’ll live with me from now on.”“I’m Dongyoung.”





	Black Hole

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any of the people and this story isn't by any means an accurate representation of the people by whom it is inspired by.
> 
> Hello, it’s me, the person who cannot let go of her AUs and has to write spin-offs. This is a prequel in the Heaven series, but you don’t have to read all the other parts to understand this – though it probably helps set the tone. It’s set a few years prior to everything else.
> 
> I chose the title because I wanted it to have to do with the universe and I have a lengthy explanation why I chose this at the end ^^
> 
> There’s amazing art of [Doyoung](https://twitter.com/KeiSugarbat/status/1158240634286854145), when he’s a little older~
> 
> [Cuties](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7GnCcjWkAA0EKt?format=jpg&name=small)

#####

A bit over 100 years ago, scientists in Japan first succeeded in merging human and animal DNA, creating what would later become known as a Hybrid.

It was basically like owning a dog, only a slightly smarter dog that’d understand finer details of your commands and could answer back - that had been the original idea. Quite useful, if you asked Taeil, and quite cute.

When he had been little, the woman living next to them had owned a dog Hybrid. Taeil had often played with her, despite the big age difference. Hybrids didn’t think like humans, they didn’t develop like them, that had gotten lost in the merger of DNAs. So, it wasn’t surprising that she was still interested in the same thing as Taeil, who was 10 years younger than her.

When he had been 11, she was hit by a car. Not a fatal accident, but the doctors had said it’d be too expensive to nurse her back to health, she’d probably need extensive help recovering, if she could at all.

They had put her down, and the woman had bought a new Hybrid, but it had never been the same. He had been sad over the loss for months, definitely for far longer than their neighbour.

Taeil had never understood why people would put their Hybrids down, just how he never understood why people would put their dogs down, when there was still hope for recovery?

He had asked his parents if he could buy her, use his savings to save her, but they had said no. Those savings were for college, and even if they weren’t, they wouldn’t cover the expenses by a long shot. She’d have to go into a rehabilitation centre and every single thing would have to be paid for.

Why bother, if she was just a Hybrid?

In his mourning, Taeil had decided to become a Hybrid doctor, so he could save all those Hybrids that’d be put down otherwise.

His parents hadn’t been happy. Hybrid doctor… that was a low reputation profession – for those who wanted to be something but weren’t quite smart enough. Taeil had nothing but straight As, why not go for human medicine instead? Or maybe become a lawyer…

Taeil didn’t let them change his mind. He was going to become a Hybrid doctor and take care of all those terrible cases.

It wasn’t even that he liked Hybrids that much. Yes, they were cute, but as he grew older, he started to think the whole practice was a little… odd.

Of course, he understood the Hybrids were bred for this. They didn’t want any other life than the one where they’d walk behind their owner families and do whatever asked of them.

They just looked so human, it felt weird to him.

Not to mention the practice of keeping cat and rabbit Hybrids for… well, the bedroom. That made Taeil shudder. It just wasn’t for him. The line of consent was a bit too blurry.

He only cared about the physiological aspects, so these creatures wouldn’t have to suffer. After all, humans had made them, so it was their responsibility to give them the best care possible since they couldn’t do it themselves. That was Taeil’s opinion.

And honestly, there were plenty of absolutely fascinating aspects to that, so much that was still hardly researched, so many illnesses common in humans that Hybrids hardly ever showed.

Well…

They might be more common if breeders didn’t tend to prefer, were even encouraged, to put young Hybrids with any sort of imperfection down.

Taeil had asked a professor if that didn’t count as murder in his first semester, not very long ago.

It had been out of genuine curiosity. It really couldn’t be that hard to find some medication to many of the problems that were like a death sentence for a puppy, kitten, or bunny Hybrid.

The man had very firmly said that to consider it murder, Hybrids would have to be as sentient as humans. And they weren’t, so it was simply putting them out of their misery. A mercy, so to speak.

It had just seemed a little too… insistent on the man’s side. Like he was trying to convince himself. Taeil was still leaning towards calling it murder, but it wasn’t like anyone was asking the intern anything. He was just here to watch as the doctors made their diagnoses, assigned treatments, or suggested to “best end it here for them”.

Luckily, those weren’t the most cases. The most cases were actually interesting, things that Taeil was itching to do himself soon. Well… kinda soon, he was only in his second semester, after all.

Things like stitching up cuts, straighten broken bones, take different tests to determine what was wrong with the Hybrid on the examination bed. It was all like a huge puzzle to him. A regular doctor would have to focus on one thing, a Hybrid doctor got to do it all. Maybe not in as great detail, but that was due to the Hybrids not needing quite as elaborate care as humans, since, well, they obviously were Hybrids. This was the reason why he had not opted for human medicine – as a Hybrid doctor, he could go after all these questions, he could explore and research with far fewer limitations.

“Taeil-sshi, how about you do the basic physical exam?”

It was the sentence he loved hearing the most. It was usually only Doctor Kwon how’d let him closer to the patients. He wasn’t supposed to yet, but she was the most relaxed, and she also gave the best tips on how to go about things.

“Yes, of course, if that’s alright with you, sir?” Taeil looked at the man, who had brought the frail-looking bunny that was currently slumped on the bed, barely able to hold himself upright.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He gestured to the Hybrid.

“For how long has he had symptoms?” Doctor Kwon asked behind him while Taeil scooted closer to the bunny.

He had lop ears, which made him look even more tiny and miserable than he already was. Taeil didn’t feel bad for him. Even as an intern he had no room to feel pity for every single patient or he would be crying by hour two of the day. But he wasn’t a psychopath. He did know he was definitely in pain. If he were a human, he might be confused or even scared. Bunny Hybrids didn’t really feel emotions, so he wouldn’t, but still. Taeil considered it when approaching.

“Two weeks, maybe? I thought it was a flu, but it won’t go away and he started having these attacks where he just shakes and collapses, so I thought maybe check back?”

Taeil frowned. Yeah, _better check back_. How could people be so negligent? It was ridiculous! Especially the breeders often came in a stage that no Hybrids should have to get to. If only they’d get over themselves and seek out doctors when their Hybrids got sick, not when they seemed close to dying.

This, alongside the occasional euthanasia, was the part Taeil knew he already hated. He understood Hybrids weren’t as developed as humans, but they still suffered. A less complex emotional and cognitive system didn’t result in higher pain tolerance, it seemed like that concept wouldn’t quite stick with many owners, even less with breeders.

It wasn’t surprising that it was a bunny breeder. Those were usually the worst. Rabbits generally sold at the lowest prices, so, in order to make a profit, they’d keep the costs of raising them as low as they could.

It made sense from an economic point of view, but as a future doctor and person with any sort of common sense, Taeil really couldn’t relate.

“Please ask him to take off his shirt,” Taeil told the breeder and smiled at the bunny. It seemed superfluous to involve the owner, but it was discouraged to address the patients directly. He had learnt that before even coming here. Allegedly, it was to avoid confusing Hybrids by addressing them differently than how they were used to. Mainly, it fed into the system of supremacy, but Taeil knew people liked to pretend they weren’t using it like that.

“Shirt off,” the man snorted.

The bunny startled from the harsh tone, then immediately started struggling his way out of his clothing. It looked almost painful as he tried to get it off, but his arms kept giving out. Taeil wasn’t sure if he should ask for permission to help, but before he could, the bunny managed to free himself. He narrowed his eyes. There were scratch marks all over his torso.

“He has dry skin.” He announced the observation. It was basic protocol, so the nurse could note everything down in the patient’s file and Doctor Kwon would know what he did see and where she’d need to chime in because he had missed it.

“Yeah, we’ve been trying to take care of that. It’s become worse recently, too, but we haven’t found a lotion that works on him yet.”

Taeil frowned. The reason for the bad skin condition could be how skinny the Hybrid was, clearly underweight without even having him step on a scale.

“How’s his diet?” Doctor Kwon asked, obviously having seen, too.

“Well, it was normal, he lost most of the weight during the last two weeks since he’s been sick, he hardly keeps anything down and when he does, it’s stuff like raw salad.”

Taeil knew he was supposed to check the throat, ears, eyes, lung, and abdomen, but he didn’t even get beyond the first step. As a doctor, he had to be observant, recognise those things, the patients missed, as indicators to make a diagnosis. Here, he noticed something immediately, the spatula to push the tongue out of the way still in his hand: his breath smelt of acetone.

Taeil raced through which illnesses, he had memorised in countless of sleepless nights, these symptoms could match and what else to look for. He felt his heart sink. “Has he been very thirsty?” he asked the breeder.

“Yeah, he drank well, which is the only thing he really wanted: water.”

Taeil turned and saw Doctor Kwon eye him expectantly.

“I think we should check his blood sugar. His symptoms could suggest diabetes.”

“How did you deduce that, Taeil-sshi?” Doctor Kwon asked. It wasn’t malicious, it was a normal question, while the owner groaned and rubbed his hands over his face.

To him, this meant a significant loss already. Taeil hated to say it, but buying insulin, every day, every week, every month? It’d get expensive, even if it was only for a few more years until the Hybrid could be sold. Making matters worse, financially speaking, it was unlikely he’d even find a buyer. If he did, he’d only get a fraction of a healthy bunny’s worth for him.

He couldn’t focus on the consequences yet. In his head, the chart for the symptoms had flashed up, and he just had to run it down.

“He’s drinking more than the normal amount and kept it down, which would be unlikely was it gastritis, which it’s also been going on for far too long. He’s lethargic and weak, lost weight, and the only food his body has been able to process is very low in carbohydrates. His skin is dry and seems to be itchy, which is why it’s scratched so much. Most obviously, his breath smells of acetone.” It was a full hit on all criteria.

“Very good, excellent assumption. Well, we’ll run some blood and urine tests, that’ll easily tell us if Taeil-sshi’s on the right track.”

“What if it’s actually that? Isn’t that chronic?”

“Unfortunately, it is. Insulin doesn’t differ between mammals, so treatment for Hybrids would be possible, but you might prefer having him be put down due to costs.” Taeil couldn’t stop himself from gritting his teeth, despite already having known she would suggest it.

Why not only give the treatment as an option? Why not help the Hybrids when it was clearly possible? Why treat him like a toy, that could be discarded when it wasn’t shiny enough anymore?

“Well, maybe it’s not that?” the breeder asked.

Taeil looked at the Hybrid again. If it wasn’t that, he was going to dunk himself in ice for half an hour – but he’d do so gladly because if it was, that was going to be a death sentence.

While the tests ran, Taeil was tasked with calculating the costs for the breeder. Just so he could make an ‘educated decision’.

Taeil hated it. He often had to do this, like you could weigh a life in money. It felt wrong, no matter whether or not it was considered murder.

The Hybrid’s passport was sleek and well kept. Holland Lop Breeders’ Union, the title in golden letters said. Taeil only needed his exact age, but his eyes caught on the name. He regretted it because knowing the name always made it harder.

Hybrids weren’t people, they weren't developed enough to have free will or what could be considered a personality. But a life was a life, and when he had a name, it was suddenly a lot harder to accept this little thing wouldn’t be around for much longer.

He was a little over 10 years old now, meaning the breeder would have to play for nearly four years’ worth of insulin. With the current prices, that equalled over 10,000,000 Won. Taeil flipped through the Unions’ grades the bunny had gotten. It was all rather good. Completely healthy, a Hybrid like him might sell for 15 to 20 Million won.

With the illness… well.

Adding the costs of raising him, the decision was pretty much already made. If he was fully honest, there had never been two equal options to consider, to begin with.

Taeil stared at the book he had used to look up the insulin dosage. There was hardly any data on the effect in Hybrids. It seemed to work fine, but there wasn’t a lot of evidence.

When the scientists had merged the DNA, a few things other than the desired appendages had transferred into the Hybrids, such as their more animalistic minds, barks in dogs, purrs in cats. In bunnies, one of the unplanned for side-effects, that hadn’t really posed a problem, was their digestion system – unlike humans and the other two kinds of Hybrids, they weren’t omnivorous, but herbivorous.

Wouldn’t that affect their illness? Wouldn’t you have to adjust the treatment? Maybe it was even possible to lower the insulin needed, which in turn would reduce costs.

Taeil noticed he was biting his lower lip. His doctoral thesis was obviously still far off, but how absolutely fascinating a topic would this be?

He could save this Hybrid’s life. I might be a little tight, but his parents were supporting him, and he had his savings. He wasn’t living off Ramen now, so he could maybe pay for a bunny Hybrid… and… insulin…

“Well, I admire this dedication to science, really. I know you’ll get far with your sense for treatments and thirst for knowledge.” Doctor Kwon smiled.

Taeil hoped he would. Maybe, he could find some way to reduce costs in Hybrid treatment, make it less daunting to owners and breeders, so they could ultimately get better care.

He wiggled the passport in his hand, as well as the written agreement to pass ownership of bunny _SK-1287_ to Moon Taeil.

He knew it was for science and for a good reason, but it still felt weird. He had never planned to own a Hybrid, much less a bunny. He suddenly felt a little like he fell into one category as those borderline perverted men and women that’d have one and keep them under the table for services at any given moment.

Taeil shuddered. Nope, definitely not the intention! Less sentience or not, he couldn’t bear seeing people treat their Hybrids that poorly without calling them out and he would never do it himself.

He pushed the door of the room open, where the Hybrid had stayed while he had finalised things with the breeder. The boy startled up from sleep and blinked at Taeil in confusion. His face was impossibly pale and skinny. His eyes were round and wide, staring back at him. He almost looked scared. Obviously, a bunny Hybrid wouldn’t be able to feel that, but it looked like a mimicry of an emotion.

Taeil suddenly found it hard to remember his professional distance. It was likely due to the passport and agreement in his hand, maybe it had already started when he had read the Hybrid’s name.

The boy might know from the reaction of his breeder that this wasn’t a good situation he had found himself in, Taeil wasn’t sure how much he’d be able to comprehend. With the big eyes on him, Taeil suddenly struggled to tell himself he was just some silly little Hybrid. They were a bit too knowing and smart for him to be comfortable with that reasoning.

“Hey. I’m Taeil, you’ll live with me from now on.”

The bunny slowly nodded, his initial worry seemed to bleed out of him and left him lethargic once more. His eyes started to get droopy again. “Thank you, Master Taeil.” His voice was light, a little breathy from illness. “M-my name is Dongyoung, or Doyoung if you prefer.”

“I know.” Taeil scooted over. Doctor Kwon had gifted him a package of insulin shots, just as a good luck charm for a successful research project. He had never given shots before, and while it was an easy task, he couldn’t help be a little nervous. Especially since there was no one to tell what he was doing, no owner… well, he was the owner.

Telling someone what he did usually made this easier. The Hybrid probably wouldn’t understand, but he could still tell him, right?

“We’ve diagnosed Diabetes, Type 1, in you. That means your body can’t produce insulin anymore because your pancreas is damaged. Since insulin is extremely important for you to survive, we have to inject it instead. I’ll give you a quick poke with this so we can get your blood sugar back to normal, steady levels. It might take a little work, but you’ll hopefully feel better in a few days, once your body is back to normal working mode.”

“Does that hurt?” The bunny asked, biting his lower lip in worry. So, he had understood at least a bigger part of what Taeil had said. That was surprising.

“Maybe a little? But it’ll be worth it because it’ll help you get better.”

Taeil rubbed the cotton ball with alcohol over Dongyoung’s skin to prepare.

“Okay,” he huffed and closed his eyes. Taeil saw him puff out his cheeks, face set in a serious expression.

When Taeil injected the insulin, rather than the overdose of a narcotic that had been meant to be administered to the boy, he felt he had done the right thing.

By the time he finished for the day and could go home, the Hybrid was fast asleep and Taeil couldn’t bear waking him, so, he picked him up and carried him through half the city to his flat. It wasn’t even hard, the kid was so skinny he weighed nothing.

When he had put him down on his sofa, where he curled up into a small ball, the situation slowly started to sink into his head.

He had really gone and gotten himself a Hybrid, the thing he had always said he didn’t want to do. Not to mention a bunny, not even a dog one. Taeil suddenly had serious doubts he could actually take care of him. He was so young, so small, and still so sick!

He sighed and dropped to the floor in front of the sofa, rubbing his face.

How could he have not, though? How could he have let this kid get put down when there was a relatively easy treatment?

Taeil groaned softly, to not wake the boy, and looked up. Dongyoung’s cheek was squashed against the sofa pillow, his mouth slightly agape. A weird feeling ran through Taeil. Almost… protectiveness? He didn’t want to see anyone suffer, but with the professional border broken, he suddenly felt a dedication and responsibility he hadn’t known in himself before.

Taeil tried his best in preparing some vegetarian dinner, something easy to digest and low in carbs and sugar. By the time he was almost done and checked on the rabbit again, he had woken up and was looking around the living room.

“Hey!” Taeil cleaned off his hands on the towel he had pulled through his belt and hurried over. The Hybrid looked at him with big eyes. “How are you feeling?” Taeil internally slapped his forehead for asking the Hybrid something he couldn’t answer, but the bunny didn’t look confused at all and replied:

“Uh… okay?”

Taeil was unsure if he could trust that assessment. He had never really put that much thought into how much exactly Hybrids were able to understand about themselves and their environment. He saw them as a medical quiz in the first place, as relatively pleasant companions that just deserved to be around in the second. Beyond that? It hadn’t been his responsibility to know.

Clearly, that was a too narrow approach now that there was suddenly a Hybrid on his sofa – which he hadn’t planned for in the first place.

A simple pain analysis shouldn’t be too hard, though. Hearing ‘okay’ was relatively reassuring.

“Let me check your blood sugar quickly, so I know if we’re going the right direction.” Taeil found himself rambling as he returned to the kitchen to turn off the stove and grabbed the kit to easily track said blood sugar. He was nervous, much more than he had anticipated being. This was all new and confusing, but he couldn’t let that overwhelm him. He had a responsibility now!

Doing a simple prick and putting that into the analyser wasn’t hard. Taeil had done more difficult tasks before. Only, all those had been under supervision and, again, there was no older doctor here and he was the owner himself.

Dongyoung was perfectly quiet, just watching. He looked a little more alert now, which reassured Taeil. The insulin’s effect should be immediate and he had slept quite a bit. The longer-term worries would be getting this to a steady level, the weight loss, skin dryness, and whatever wasn’t as apparent upon the first examination.

Taeil was about to ask an owner for permission to take the blood, then realised there was no one but himself here. Maybe he should ask Dongyoung instead? He had seemed worried over the injection earlier. It wasn’t really the way to do things, but Taeil suddenly felt like it’d be wrong to not at least warn the boy.

“I’ll need a little blood from you. Not as much as earlier, just a drop.”

Dongyoung listened attentively and nodded. Next was to ask him to do something, which usually would have gone through the owner. Again, that was him now. How would he best address a bunny Hybrid? He had way too little experience in this!

Taeil considered the tone and words the man had used earier, but he remembered Dongyoung startling from them. It also wasn’t the way Taeil generally treated people. It was may be not necessary, but basic manners never hurt anybody, why shouldn’t he just do as he would, were this another human? Taeil prided himself in generally having common sense, he’d just use that now.

“Give me your hand, please?”

Dongyoung didn’t even hesitate but held his left out right away. Taeil swallowed and tried to not make the connection to a well-trained dog, but it forced itself onto him. This was why he hadn’t wanted to become an owner! But now he was, and he would have to figure things out.

Dongyoung closed his eyes and puffed out his cheeks again when Taeil pricked his finger to draw a drop of blood.

“You’re doing really well!” Taeil muttered as he carefully put it onto the testing strip.

“Yeah?” Taeil looked up at the bunny, who had sounded unsure of himself.

“Yes, this must be really surprising for you, hm?” Taeil knew Hybrids craved touch even more than humans did, so he reached out and rubbed the bunny’s head.

The box beeped and Taeil looked to see the result.

“Yes, we’re at a much better level now. Wonderful! I made some food, are you hungry?”

When he turned toward the bunny again, there were tears in his big, round eyes, and he looked even younger than before.

“Hey, hey, no, what’s wrong?” Taeil dropped the small computer to determine the blood sugar and sat down next to him. He had seen Hybrids cry before, it was usually as a reaction to pain. “Do you hurt somewhere?”

Dongyoung was busily trying to wipe away tears but shook his head.

“Why are you crying? How can I help you?” Taeil was genuinely panicked now. He ran his mind what else he might be reacting to, but some sort of pain seemed the most likely. Emotions were pretty much lost in rabbit Hybrids, they wouldn’t cause them to be crying, right?

As the bunny squeezed his eyes shut, Taeil suddenly felt like all his theoretical knowledge was worth rat’s ass in real life.

“I…” Dongyoung sniffled “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay, don’t be, just tell me!”

“I’m… scared. I’m sad. I’m sorry.” New tears started rolling down his cheeks now and Taeil felt entirely out of his element.

He was scared and sad? He hadn’t even known bunny Hybrids would feel that way! His professors insisted that most Hybrids at best experiences a melancholic mood, but real emotions? Strong enough to make him cry, and easily identifiable by the Hybrid himself?

Taeil hadn’t even considered that.

Of course, he was only 10, and while Hybrids were considered of age at 14 because research suggested their maturity level would be reached by then, he was still definitely a child, in both human and Hybrid terms. Naturally, suddenly being taken home with a stranger, especially while being sick, would be terrifying to a child – and apparently, a Hybrid child felt that, too?

He chucked all those ideas of treating Hybrids appropriately overboard. Right now, this was a boy that had just lost his home because he was sick and no longer wanted, and Taeil would comfort him to the best of his abilities, give him a new, better home!

Gently, Taeil wrapped an arm around him and Dongyoung immediately reacted, all but throwing himself against Taeil, where he sobbed into his shirt.

He felt a little helpless as he held the Hybrid and rubbed his back while he cried his heart out. He was so small and skinny, and his fuzzy ears tickled against Taeil’s neck.

The same feeling of protectiveness raised its head again in his chest. It was odd, to feel that for a Hybrid he had acquired hours ago by chance, but it was there, strongly reminding Taeil of his new role and responsibility.

Apparently, that didn’t only mean he had a Hybrid to take care of and try to find out more about an illness on, no, he actually now had a child with fears and worries, with probably all the other emotions he hadn’t thought he’d have.

Frankly, it was terrifying. Taeil was 19! He wasn’t ready to be a father!

Well, too late to chicken out now. Dongyoung needed him, he’d better step up his game.

It took a little for Dongyoung to calm down, but then he was able to sit back up and rub his red-rimmed eyes. He even produced a tissue from his pocket and blew his nose loudly. Taeil felt oddly moved that the boy would carry one.

“I know this was very sudden, but you can stay here. I’ll make sure you get healthy and I’ll try to give you a good home, okay?”

“You… you won’t put me down? I don’t… I don’t want to die yet, please, Master Taeil!” He clutched his tissue and looked at him with so much desperation in his eyes, it broke Taeil’s heart.

He didn’t want to die yet.

The wonder if the practice of euthanasia on Hybrids could be considered murder suddenly slammed back in with full force. Just the thought that a Hybrid would be aware it was a thing and would fear it made Taeil feel sick all over.

“No, I won’t. I know your illness can be treated, so we’ll do just that! And… I don’t really like the Master, it sounds like…” well, like this was some sort of BDSM setting and Taeil would really rather not…

Dongyoung looked at him in utter confusion “But you’re a human, I have to show respect.”

“Yeah, well… how about just Taeil-Hyung?”

“Taeil… Hyung?”

“Yeah, I like that better, let’s use that.”

“Taeil-Hyung.”

The first days were easier than Taeil had feared. Dongyoung would hold still, close his eyes, and puff his cheeks whenever he took blood to test his sugar level and injected insulin.

Getting him on the right dosage was also not as difficult as anticipated.

He ate well and slept for most the time Taeil was gone at his internship, so he quickly gained back some of the weight and started looking a lot healthier. Taeil especially adored the chubby cheeks he developed. He found himself squeezing them much too often.

He once asked Dongyoung if he found it annoying, but the bunny had stared at him blankly and said he could do whatever he wanted because he was his owner.

Yikes.

He had emotions, he’d most likely feel uncomfortable with some things but had been trained to suppress that. It made it even clearer just how blurry the line of consent was with Hybrids. Taeil would have to try and work on that, but the first priority was getting Dongyoung healthy and used to him – and get used to Dongyoung in turn.

He had to buy a collar and tags for him, in case he wanted to leave the house. People had said bunnies and cats were natural inside-Hybrids, but after Dongyoung had already shown so much more emotion than people gave these types Hybrids credit for, Taeil had trouble believing that to be the truth, so buying a collar it was.

At first, Dongyoung had slept on the sofa, but during the second night, Taeil came to the kitchen late, to get himself water, and heard him crying.

“Hey,” Taeil whispered.

Immediately, the sound stopped and Dongyoung held perfectly still, like a bunny playing dead. Taeil crouched next to the sofa, “Are you scared? Sad? Lonely?”

If he suggested things, Dongyoung would usually let him know what fit, while getting him to put his opinion into his own words was a little tricky.

“Y-y-yes.”

So, all of them and possibly more.

Taeil checked the clock. He really needed to sleep, but he couldn’t, knowing Dongyoung out here, scared, sad, and lonely. Not knowing how long it would take him to fall asleep again, Taeil didn’t want to risk suggesting to wait until he had and then be stuck for possibly hours.

He remembered his mother doing that for him, sometimes.

But other times, she had brought him into her bed.

Taeil had always liked that. He wasn’t sure how old was too old to do that, but, again, theoretical knowledge was overall not really helping him with Dongyoung.

Taeil considered it for a moment. He’d definitely be reassured if Dongyoung was close and he’d hear him in case he’d cry again. It would also help with being lonely and maybe scared and sad. It would be a bit of a tight fit, but his bed was Queen sized, fitting the overly luxurious lifestyle of a student his parents were paying for.

“Do you want to come to sleep in my bed? So it’s not lonely anymore?”

“Y-yes,” Dongyoung sniffed and slowly sat up. He was still lacking energy and every physical activity was slower and more strained. It tore on Taeil’s heartstrings.

“Come on, I’ll give you a piggyback ride.” Taeil turned his back to Dongyoung. A second later, he felt careful hands on his shoulders and reached behind himself to pull the bunny off the sofa. He still weighed as little as two days ago, and the trip to his bed was far shorter than that across Seoul.

Dongyoung looked tiny in his bed, and when Taeil returned from grabbing his blanket and pillows from the sofa, he was already building a small nest from Taeil’s.

He looked up, eyes falling onto his own blanket in Taeil’s hand and stopped his effort.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…” he was about to ruin his tiny castle in the bed, but Taeil shook his head.

“It’s fine, I can use this one. You already put in so much work.”

“Th-thank you, Ma-Taeil-Hyung.”

Taeil ended up not being able to fall asleep until Dongyoung’s breathing had evened out next to him.

The nest-building was so instinct-driven, it fit so well with his original idea of what Hybrids were – but everything else didn’t. And really, was Taeil free of weird ideas in his head, that had no rational reasoning behind them? No, no he wasn’t. Especially as a child, he had had some rituals he needed to follow, like turning his blanket every day.

Dongyoung was a child. He might grow out of this, or maybe not. Whatever the case, Taeil couldn’t find a reason for why it should nullify the emotional complexity Dongyoung was experiencing.

It was all so confusing. Every new aspect, Taeil started thinking about, made him angrier and strengthened his protective instincts over Dongyoung. Even if building nests was something he might have gotten from some bunny-genetics, it was so precious and adorable!

Taeil carried Dongyoung from the living room another five more times. Each time, he tried to encourage Dongyoung to come on his own if he needed someone to be there, and the seventh time it happened, Taeil nearly suffered a heart attack because he put his book aside and was suddenly faced with a pair of faintly glowing eyes and a soft voice asking if he could sleep here.

Dongyoung got physically better after a couple of weeks. Soon, he was usually awake, bouncing on the sofa in boredom by the time Taeil came home from university. It was a relief to see, but it made things a little more difficult.

“Is there something you enjoy doing?”

Dongyoung looked at him in confusion. It was always the same pattern when it came to these questions.

“Maybe you could watch tv over the day? Or… read?”

Dongyoung nodded furiously, his ears swinging back and forth.

They were really quite cute, flopping over both sides of his head. The fur on them was incredibly soft, too, and Dongyoung let him pet them often. Luckily, he seemed to genuinely enjoy it when Taeil did that. Since he still said everything was okay, Taeil had to try and read what Dongyoung actually did like. Thought, that, too, was a bit hard. For a 10-year-old, Dongyoung was scarily good at pretending to be fine with everything.

Taeil didn’t have any books fit for a pre-teen. He had no clue what level Dongyoung would be able to understand.

Taeil always had to somewhat trick him into making Dongyoung tell his mind by suggesting things, but he kept forgetting that was how to approach it. It felt weird to pre-decide.

In the long run, he wanted to change that. Clearly, the boy was smarter than he had been led to believe, he had a free will, he’d be able to form and voice an opinion and a preference if just given the chance to. Surely, there was a lot Taeil forgot 10-year-olds liked and Dongyoung missed out despite maybe enjoying it if he’d just ask for it.

In the meanwhile, Taeil had to somewhat work around it.

“How about we go to buy some books for you?” His savings really were suffering. After his shopping spree for tiny-sized clothing, they had already shrunken considerably, but it didn’t matter. He had a child to take care of!

“For me? Books?” Dongyoung’s eyes widened.

“Yes, whatever you want. I don’t know what you enjoy.”

“I’m fine with whatever you choose, Taeil-Hyung!” Dongyoung hurried to fall back onto his usual answer.

“I chose for you to choose.”

Dongyoung blinked, once, twice, and Taeil saw his lower lip start to tremble a little.

“B-but I don’t know how?”

Taeil’s heart sunk, but he tried not to show it. He didn’t want to let Dongyoung know he had obviously been completely mistreated, worse, society was obviously set on discrediting his intelligence and the complexity of his mind by denying it existed.

It wasn’t like Taeil wasn’t doing it himself. He kept thinking Dongyoung would not be smart enough to comprehend a situation or learn a certain skill. He needed to unlearn that. But he didn’t want Dongyoung to be confronted with this reality more than absolutely necessary.

He was so tiny and young. He didn’t need to face the cruelty of the world fully yet.

“It’s super easy, just as easy as pulling out the sofa.” Taeil had explained that the first week and Dongyoung did it himself ever since he could muster the strength, not allowing him to help anymore. It was very cute and also very superfluous because he’d end up in Taeil’s bed anyway. “We’ll go and look to see what sounds interesting, and those we can take home.”

Dongyoung blinked and nodded, and his lip stopped wobbling.

Fastening the new, previously unused, collar around Dongyoung’s neck felt a little… odd. It was similar to when Taeil had had to calculate the total a breeder would have to pay for medication until the date the Hybrid could be sold. Putting a tag on a Hybrid fully stripped them of their humanity and reinforced it to everyday society.

Before, that hadn’t seemed like an issue to Taeil.

Now, he was reluctant over having to help Dongyoung buckle it.

It was unavoidable, though. Like he had to carry his identification card, Dongyoung needed the official tag.

20 minutes later, they were in Taeil’s favourite book shop, not too far from his small flat. Some people gave them confused looks, but Taeil thought he’d probably be doing the same. Bunnies hardly ever roamed the streets, much less young ones.

Dongyoung’s eyes kept flitting around, taking everything in, and his grip on Taeil’s sleeve was tight. Taeil didn’t dare ask if this was all new for him, he could already guess the answer. It had recently started to make him weirdly upset. He wished he could just go back to accepting Hybrids just happened to look like humans a bit but essentially were pets at heart. But he couldn’t.

Not when he had Dongyoung, with his round, smart eyes and easy understanding of anything Taeil threw at him that should be too hard for him to grasp.

And really, would it be fair if he went back to doing what everyone was, benefitting of a system of abuse?

Taeil nearly lost his voice over reading out so many back-cover texts and pushing Dongyoung into actually deciding and telling his opinion on them, but once the bunny had understood he just had to consider if it sounded interesting, they made progress quickly.

Seeing Dongyoung pull out book after book on his own, check the backs, and then either carefully put them back or into the basket, made Taeil’s chest swell in pride but also consider getting a membership for the public library again.

He didn’t have the heart to tell Dongyoung to stop, and the bunny made his way through the entire shelf, choosing over 30 books. He was going to be broke before the month ended if he kept this kind of spending up.

Knowing him entertained with books helped Taeil feel a lot less guilty when he left Dongyoung to his own devices the next morning, to hurry onto campus for his morning lectures, and return there for the afternoon classes after going home for lunch.

Apparently, reading was a passion of Dongyoung’s. Whenever Taeil came home, he had his nose in something. After asking for permission (much to Taeil’s pride), he tried the novels from Taeil’s collection when he ran out of his own, but as expected, he was very slow with the heavier lecture.

Taeil made sure to take him to the library whenever he could, but between classes, studying, occasionally meeting both his friends and his parents, and suddenly having to cook healthy food (not takeout 24/7, that was not good food for a growing child and especially not for a chronically ill one), Taeil barely managed to get enough sleep.

It was all worth it, though, he had not a second of regret. It was like watching a flower bloom, only in fast motion because Dongyoung seemed to not only grow healthier, but also smarter, more curious, and more sceptical every day and the more Taeil helped him explore past what boundaries he had previously lived within.

“Hyung?”

Taeil looked up from chopping carrots, noticing Dongyoung had already finished preparing the rice and it was cooking merrily.

“So, I said my name was Dongyoung, Doyoung if you prefer, right?”

“Yes.”

“But actually, I prefer Doyoung. Can you call me that instead?”

Taeil felt tears rise in his eyes. Tears of pure pride and joy.

“Yes, of course!”

“Okay. I’ll set the table then.” Doyoung turned to the cutlery drawer and pulled out chopsticks, while Taeil told himself he could not become an over-obsessed parent, that’d start praising their child for tying their shoes.

It was just hard to not feel like that. He should really look into some parental guidelines or Doyoung would end up a spoilt brat before he knew – and he didn’t want to ruin this person that was just learning to become one. 

Doyoung slowly growing more curious and starting to ask for and about things, eventually reached levels Taeil had not expected it to. Despite trying, he still kept limiting Doyoung’s cleverness in his head, falling back into what he had grown up in.

Luckily, he had Doyoung right there to remind him how terribly unreasonable these ideas were and helped him snap out of it whenever he threatened to forget they were.

“Hyung, what level should the blood sugar be at?” Doyoung asked, watching as Taeil wrote today’s morning measurement down.

“Well, that depends. For a normal person before eating, you’d want about a 100.”

“Today it’s 102, right?”

“Yes.”

“So, is that good?”

“Yes, it is. We have a good dosage for you, I’m very glad.”

“Me, too. What do I need the sugar in my blood for?”

“Well, your body needs sugar to work, all the cells in your body use it to do their job. It fuels them. Since your blood runs everywhere, the sugar in it is there to bring that fuel to your cells.”

“Wow… my body is made of cells? I thought it was just made of body. What are cells?”

“Uh…” Taeil struggled to put himself into the shoes of a 10-year-old, “Like Lego bricks made a Lego house? The cells are what builds your body. They’re a lot smaller, obviously.”

Doyoung’s eyes widened “And the insulin? What does insulin do, Hyung?”

“Well, insulin is a hormone, it helps your cells actually use the sugar. It’s like the key to the doors to your cells.”

Doyoung looked at him starry-eyed, “That’s so cool! Where does insulin come from? Why doesn’t my body make it?”

“It’s made in the pancreas. Unfortunately, yours was damaged, so it no longer can make any.”

“Where is that? The pancreas?”

Taeil hesitated, but Doyoung was so excited to learn, who was he to withhold information? Actually, it was sort of interesting to see him absorb the knowledge like a sponge. It once more went to show, his cognitive abilities were just as underestimated as his emotional ones. After all, he seemed to have little trouble understanding literature aimed at his age group – why not biology?

“It sits here.” Taeil put his finger on the middle of Doyoung’s stomach.

“And how does it know how much insulin to make? How do we know how much insulin I need?”

“Well, in the body that’s regulated by natural signals, for you, we have to calculate it.”

“Can you show me? I wanna calculate it, please!” Taeil’s heart seemed to burst in his chest hearing the request, not a second of hesitation in Doyoung’s voice.

Children truly were so easily moulded and impressed. Both for better and worse – in this case, Taeil was extremely relieved to have this benefit and to see how easily Doyoung adapted.

“Well… do you know how to add numbers?”

Doyoung’s face fell. “No.”

“Do you want to learn how to do that?”

“Yes! Yes!”

Taeil had never considered becoming a teacher, but with a pupil as eager and hard-working as Doyoung, it didn’t seem too bad a thing. Maybe the fact that he now didn’t even have time to watch his favourite music show in the evening was a little unfortunate, but again, he had no regrets.

At first, he had overexplained himself and moved at turtle’s pace. Until Doyoung announced he had gone ahead and worked his way through the entire workbook in the afternoon, that Taeil had planned to slowly explain to him over the course of two weeks.

“But we didn’t even cover fractions yet.” He stared at the carefully written in solutions. There were a few errors in the beginning, but Doyoung had noticed where his issues lied and corrected all of them. The further into the chapter he got, the less was crossed out.

“I looked into the textbook. Was that… not okay?” Doyoung looked up through his fringe.

“No, no, no, of course, that’s okay, I’m not mad, I’m the opposite of mad, I’m so impressed, Doyoung, this took me years to learn in school. You’re extremely smart, do you know that?”

Doyoung’s round eyes became even rounder.

“No.” He breathed.

“Well, you are. You definitely are.” If he weren’t born a Hybrid, set into a system that wouldn’t even waste a second to consider sending him to school, he could have become a straight-A student, the type that’d become class president and receive scholarships.

Taeil’s heart sunk a little at the realisation that no one would have even told him he was smart when he so clearly was. He wanted to tell Doyoung he could become anything with intelligence like this, a doctor, a physicist, an astronaut, only… he couldn’t. Doyoung wouldn’t be able to go to school, to university, much less get a job.

“I’ll make sure to get some more advanced material the next chance I get, okay? Maybe we should add a few other subjects, too, so you don’t get bored.”

Doyoung nodded, looking excited, and Taeil smiled despite feeling like there was a black hole in his chest over the realisation this little being, that he technically owned, could have maybe become the person to cure cancer, but would never get the chance to.

He wanted to give him everything he humanly could, so Doyoung could at least do whatever was possible for a Hybrid.

“Yes, I’d like that, Hyung, thank you!”

Taeil’s friends from school had long started joking he had become a father whenever he came running to the afternoon classes from having lunch with Doyoung, or would accidentally rant too much over whatever Doyoung had impressed him with that day.

It wasn’t surprising he was perceived that way, he guessed. He had started to refer to Doyoung as his child long ago. It had kind of started the moment he had brought him home, but only once it really settled in that this was just a human with some additional appendages, sharper senses, and stronger instincts, had he really started to accept his fate.

To his friends, it was a joke.

Just like they didn’t really take Taeil’s retelling of Doyoung’s wits and cleverness seriously but as a part of his imagination and infatuation with the bunny.

To Taeil, his friends were becoming more and more of a joke, seeing how set on seeing Doyoung as naturally inferior to themselves they were.

At the same time, it made him sad. Their dismissive attitudes were why he never just went ahead and introduced Doyoung, so they could see for themselves. He didn’t want Doyoung to have to know any of this. He wanted him to maybe, just a little bit, actually feel like Taeil could be something of a dad or an older brother. He didn’t want him to know people would laugh at the idea that such a bond would be possible.

He got into more than one heated debate with his professors. When he handed in a paper and instead of quoting the usual sources and using the usual definitions, he had done a deep search into the data bank and actually found proof that debunked the whole limited-capabilities approach, published by the original Hybrid lab in Japan, no less, he got the first F of his academic career.

He didn’t really care.

It was one subject of many, and in all the tests on the, much vaster and bigger, physiological subjects he excelled.

He could barely stand the idea of having to go back into an internship and watch little boys and girls be killed for no reason other than money. It made him feel like throwing up.

He would open his own place, he knew that for sure. One where he could give appropriate treatment to the Hybrids and recommend therapy instead of murder.

There were more Hybrids out there like Doyoung, that needed a home. Right now, Taeil had neither the money nor the space to accommodate any of them, but he wouldn’t be a broke student forever. One day, he would help as many of them as he could, trying to make at least a few lives better to the best of his abilities.

It was weird how his original decision to never own a Hybrid had turned into the opposite, where he wanted to rip every mistreated one from their owners. Or maybe it was just weird he hadn’t felt like this before.

After all, Taeil had always had held a distaste for the culture society had grown for Hybrids. That he could do more than promote treatments would seem like a logical next step – but only Doyoung had helped him realise it was.

“I can do it for you.”

“N-n-no, I c-c-can do it!” Doyoung’s fingers were shaking and Taeil worried the bunny would accidentally poke himself where it hurt more because he couldn’t hold the needle still.

He had asked to learn it himself, though, and Taeil would actually feel more assured if Doyoung were independent with monitoring his blood sugar. He was already quite good at correctly calculating his dosages and Taeil usually only had to check and nod. If anything were to happen, Doyoung could make sure he would not get into dangerous levels without Taeil around.

Doyoung puffed his cheeks and pressed the small button that automatically released the needle. It clicked and he waited for a second, then pulled it away and carefully pressed his finger, inspecting it. A small drop of blood collected and Taeil held the test-strip his direction.

With the most care in the world, Doyoung placed the blood right in the middle and the box started calculating under his watchful eyes.

“98. That’s good.” Doyoung announced and looked up for approval.

“Yes, it is.” Taeil smiled and ruffled his hair. “Really good job.”

“Thank you.” Doyoung beamed and wrote the number into his diary. He hesitated, pencil still over the page, then looked up and Taeil knew there was a heavy question coming.

Like when Doyoung had asked why his breeder didn’t want him back, or when he had asked if God was real and if so, why he was ill and not healthy.

“Hyung, insulin is expensive, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, a little, but in comparison to your life, it’s very cheap. Your life is so valuable it can’t be measured.”

“Hm. Are you sure about that? Because I was really wondering… my breeder always said we had to be polite and well behaved so we’d sell for more. Selling for more is better, so, my life can be measured. I think. Right?”

Taeil swallowed and glanced to the clock. His first class started in 15 minutes, there was no way he would make that if he didn’t leave within the next two minutes. He’d have to ask someone for their notes and try to figure it out with his anatomy book himself.

Doyoung was obviously much more important than any class, even if it was anatomy and sort of relevant.

“Someone decided to sell Hybrids one day. They made up a price and put them on the market. Someone else wanted to have a Hybrid, so, they agreed to pay that price and the seller got money. Other people liked that idea and started doing the same. Suddenly, there was competition over who had the best Hybrid, when you actually can’t define what is best because every person is different.

“Not only every Hybrid is - your personal best might not be the personal best some other bunny can do – but every human is, too – something one person might find desirable, someone else might not like.

“In this system, they completely forgot about that and started following one ideal, trying to outdo each other to earn more money. They also forgot the first price was made up. Yes, you can calculate how much you spent on food and clothing, but how much profit was made on top was just a random number. So, no, you can’t measure your worth. You can put a number on it, but it will never objectively reflect it.”

Doyoung frowned, nodding slowly.

“But I still don’t understand why you think so and others don’t?”

Doyoung eyed him carefully, and Taeil felt like he read him like an open book. There was no real point in lying, other than hurting Doyoung in the long run.

“Honestly… I didn’t quite see things how I see them now when I took you home, three months ago. I didn’t think you’d be this… much like me. Like a human. That’s why so many people don’t think like me, they just don’t know because we’re told something that isn’t true.”

“I don’t want to be like a human. Humans have no tails and no fur. I can’t be like that.” Doyoung muttered, running a hand over his left ear.

“No, that’s not… not how I meant it. You are different and you don’t have to be like a human, but you’re not different how I was taught you’d be and how you were taught you were.”

“Oh. Okay. But… if you didn’t think I’d be like this, uh, why did you agree to take me?”

Taeil couldn’t hold eye contact, guilt eating him up.

“Because of your diabetes. It’s common in humans and can easily be treated – I wanted to see how effective the transfer would be into a Hybrid, maybe do some research or even write my thesis on it.”

There was a bit of awkward silence between them, then, Taeil suddenly felt Doyoung sit down on top of him, leaning against him.

He wasn’t disappointed in Taeil’s initial selfishness?

“Okay. I wasn’t sure why and I noticed you became different, you know, over time. You started to teach me things and made me find out how to have an opinion. I like how you’re now better. I was confused about what changed, but I think I know now: I learnt many things, but you also learnt some things, right?”

“I guess that’s how you could put it,” Taeil muttered, starting to rub Doyoung’s back. The constant physical affection was something Taeil had grown used to way too quickly.

“When you write your thesis on my diabetes, and how to treat it, that’d help other Hybrids, right? That’d be something really good, then, right? When will you do that? Will that be soon? What will you do to find out more? Could I do something? I’d really like to, it sounds very interesting!”

“I… I actually didn’t plan to do it anymore.”

“What? Why?”

“I uh… didn’t want you to be a research object.”

“Well, then I’m a research subject.” Doyoung huffed and suddenly noticed the time: “Hyung! You have anatomy class!” he jumped off his lap and pulled Taeil from his chair, who was still hung up about the object-subject situation.

Maybe, Doyoung was already smarter than Taeil himself?

Or maybe he was starting to think like an over-proud parent.

“Hyung?”

Taeil looked up from the list of medication on the verge of expiring that Ten had made for him.

“Seriously, it’s 8 pm! You need to finish!” Doyoung stomped into his office and leaned down to save his open files and then turn the computer off.

“Hey! I didn’t finish the report yet!” Taeil tried to push past him, but Doyoung didn’t let him, and the blue screen of Windows shutting down made him give up with a sigh.

“You can write it tomorrow. Or have Jungwoo-Hyung write it. He’s been home for three hours and said all you were doing was work yourself into an early grave when I asked. I’m not going to let that happen!”

“Of course, see, it’s only this list and then there’s this new artic-aaaaah! Doyoung! Let me down!” Taeil screeched and tried to hold on to his desk, but Doyoung’s grip was secure. He had been thrown over the Hybrid’s shoulder and was now easily carried him out of his beautiful new office, down the hall towards the living room, from where he heard the music of a commercial break and loud chattering of countless voices.

Doyoung set him down before they arrived at the door and Taeil’s blood rushed back into his body from where it had been in his head, pulsing uncomfortably.

“Hyung, I don’t care your boyfriend says he lets you do what you enjoy, you need a break or you will burn out!” Doyoung softly reminded him. Taeil looked up and reached to squeeze his cheek. It had been a while since he had been able to carry the bunny anywhere and it had been a while since he had started to have to look up rather than down to see his face.

It didn’t matter how tall he grew or how mature be became, to Taeil, he’d always be his little, smart boy.

It was similar to what they said about first love - it was always special.

Taeil’s wish to help more Hybrids had long come true, his office was running like a well-oiled machine, countless people from all over Seoul, and even South Korea, sought out his help and were willing to pay a little more in turn to keep their Hybrids, which they often had realised were family members.

So much had changed in the last ten years, especially the last one.

But some things never changed, like Doyoung still being the one Hybrid Taeil had raised from so little on, like him being the one that had truly opened his eyes to what capabilities Hybrids had and how terrible the circumstances they grew up and lived in were.

Taeil loved the family he had grown. Every single member had a different history, some darker than others, some harder to shake than others.

Each one of them was a complex being, each one of them had their own, unique role in his household and within the dynamics of the group.

He loved all of them, and he thought of all of them as his kids, though with some it was more the big brother role than the father one. His relationships to every single one were as unique and special as their personalities.

No matter how big his family got, no matter how many more Hybrids he learnt to understand and adore for their incomparable personalities and talents, there was no one who’d become the topic of his doctoral thesis again, there was no one who’d fully turn his life and views upside down by looking at him with big round eyes and say something they weren’t supposed to know or understand.

He learnt with every new Hybrid added to the bunch, but the basics for him opening his doors and heart to all these different people? Doyoung had taught him those.

“Sorry for worrying you. I just sometimes get lost in it.”

“Well, yeah, that’s why you have me.”

“Of course. And I’m eternally grateful I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> We don’t fully know what happens when you enter a Black Hole yet – which reflects Taeil going into being a Hybrid owner without knowing what awaited him. What is clear, is that nothing can escape a Black Hole because it’d have to move faster than light, which just isn’t a thing – once Taeil realised how smart Doyoung was and how much he cared for him, there was no going back. Inside a Black Hole, the laws of physics don’t really apply, though, again, it’s still being researched because quantum physics and the theory of relativity seem to contradict each other – at Taeil’s home, the rules of society don’t apply either. Black Holes are also extremely heavy. Last but not least, Doyoung’s hair is black.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this short little story about. If you’re curious to read more, maybe check out the series, they both appear in there as well~
> 
> Thank you for reading <3 
> 
> Here's [Baby Doyoung](https://twitter.com/KeiSugarbat/status/1173185083739713536) by the same amazing artist as the picture at the beginning, but with a small spoiler~
> 
> [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/Fox_155)


End file.
